Hello.
I live in a first-floor flat (ie one storey up). At the back is a door w/catflap leading to a staircase down into the garden which I share with the flat below. The flats are semi-detached, ie there is another upstairs and downstairs flat attached to ours.
New neighbours have moved into the flat below next door, and have a large Alsatian (German Shepherd) dog which is permanently kept in the small garden.
It seems friendly but has growled and barked at the sight of my cat, which has been enough to scare the cat into not going out. The neighbours/dog only moved in a few days ago but the cat has peed and pooed in the flat since the dog appeared. Even when the dog is out (it's owner is some kind of parks policeman and the dog works with him) my cat has been too scared to go out.
Tonight I even put the food bowl outside to force her out and show her the dog wasn't even there, but as soon as she'd finished she came back inside and attempted to poo under a chest of drawers! She used to have access to both gardens, via a gate at the bottom of the stairs. The new neighbours have replaced this with a fence, which is obviously good as it stops the dog getting through to our side, but to reach my garden the cat still needs to go down the stairs, taking her right past the dog, which she won't even contemplate.
What on earth do I do? I can't have her doing her business in the flat, but I don't want to put a litter tray in the flat as this will reinforce her belief that she needn't go out. In any case, it seems rather unfair that I/she should now be 'chained' to the litter tray when she's gone outside quite happily for the last three or four years.
Sorry for the length of post, any help gratefully received.
I live in a first-floor flat (ie one storey up). At the back is a door w/catflap leading to a staircase down into the garden which I share with the flat below. The flats are semi-detached, ie there is another upstairs and downstairs flat attached to ours.
New neighbours have moved into the flat below next door, and have a large Alsatian (German Shepherd) dog which is permanently kept in the small garden.
It seems friendly but has growled and barked at the sight of my cat, which has been enough to scare the cat into not going out. The neighbours/dog only moved in a few days ago but the cat has peed and pooed in the flat since the dog appeared. Even when the dog is out (it's owner is some kind of parks policeman and the dog works with him) my cat has been too scared to go out.
Tonight I even put the food bowl outside to force her out and show her the dog wasn't even there, but as soon as she'd finished she came back inside and attempted to poo under a chest of drawers! She used to have access to both gardens, via a gate at the bottom of the stairs. The new neighbours have replaced this with a fence, which is obviously good as it stops the dog getting through to our side, but to reach my garden the cat still needs to go down the stairs, taking her right past the dog, which she won't even contemplate.
What on earth do I do? I can't have her doing her business in the flat, but I don't want to put a litter tray in the flat as this will reinforce her belief that she needn't go out. In any case, it seems rather unfair that I/she should now be 'chained' to the litter tray when she's gone outside quite happily for the last three or four years.
Sorry for the length of post, any help gratefully received.